In the present disclosure, where a document, an act and/or an item of knowledge is referred to and/or discussed, then such reference and/or discussion is not an admission that the document, the act and/or the item of knowledge and/or any combination thereof was at the priority date, publicly available, known to the public, part of common general knowledge and/or otherwise constitutes prior art under the applicable statutory provisions; and/or is known to be relevant to an attempt to solve any problem with which the present disclosure is concerned with. Further, nothing is disclaimed.
A firearm, for example a shotgun, can include multiple threaded holes for securely attaching thereto a standardized elongated rail for securely mounting a firearm capability enhancement accessory, such as an aiming device (e.g., a reflex collimator sight, holographic sight, magnified scope, or other such aiming devices). These conventional rails can have a T-shaped cross-section with a top of the T-shape corresponding to a top of the rail. Furthermore, these conventional rails can be slotted transversely along a length of the rail, allowing for an indexed spacing of the accessory that is attached to the rail. Some examples of conventional rails include MIL-STD-1913 Picatinny, NATO Accessory Rail (STANAG 4694), or a Weaver Rail.
An accessory mount can be used to attach the aiming device to the rail. Typically, the accessory mount includes a multitude of screws or levers for locking the accessory mount onto the transverse slots of the rail.
In one example firearm application, the ergonomics of a shotgun are designed around bead sights, fixed ghost rings, or peep sights that are built into the shotgun. These fixed sights are generally very low to the receiver of the shotgun.
Elongated rails have a minimum height that forces aiming accessories attached to the rails to be positioned at a level higher above the receiver than the conventional shotgun sights. Furthermore, accessory mounts have a minimum base thickness that can further raise the aiming accessory to an even higher level above the receiver. Accordingly, mounting an aiming device by way of an accessory mount on a firearm forces the shooter out of the optimal ergonomic shooting position, which degrades their shooting prowess. Additionally, mounting an aiming device by way of an accessory mount prevents the possibility of co-witnessing fixed ghost rings or adjustable iron sights that are built into the shotgun with the aiming devices. As a result, if the battery or circuitry of the aiming device coupled to the receiver were to fail, the shooter would not be able to use the built-in iron sights provided on the firearm to accurately fire the firearm.
Conventional firearm receivers tend to be made of a thin walled material such as metal (e.g., steel, aluminum, or titanium alloys), polymers, or polymer composites that include rigid threaded inserts that limit the length of the threaded shank of a mounting screw that can be used to attach a standardized elongated rail to the receiver. As a result, in order to better resist side impacts, a larger number of screws is preferable to more securely attach an elongated accessory rail to the firearm receiver.
There also exists dedicated aiming device mounts that have a built-in platform that is specific to a specific type of aiming device which has the advantage of being able to position the aiming device lower to the firearm receiver (e.g., a shotgun receiver) than is otherwise possible using a standardized elongated rail with a separate clamp on mount.
Certain aiming devices, such as the TRIJICON RMR, require that the mounting platform act as a sealing plate for the aiming device. This precludes the possibility of putting fasteners through the mounting platform to more securely attach the mount to the firearm receiver. Other types of aiming devices, such as the AIMPOINT MICRO T-1, T-2, H-1, H-2 and the many clones of these aiming devices, as well as the TRIJICON MRO and any other such aiming devices, require that the fasteners used to attach the aiming device to its mounting platform be inserted from the underside of the mount.
Because of the mounting requirements of these aiming devices, existing dedicated mounts all suffer from not allowing all the available screw holes in a firearm receiver (e.g., a shotgun receiver) to be employed to fasten the mount to the receiver. This puts all the stress on fewer screws and threaded holes which can cause either the screws to fail, or worse yet, the threaded screw holes to fail and compromise the usability of the firearm.